Free Dark Union (The Descent Series) by SM Reine Page B

“Let me go,” he said when they came in.
    “I’m working on it,” Elise said.
    Surprise registered in his muffled voice. “Kavanagh?” She cut him free and removed the hood. McIntyre had a hell of a shiner and a fat lip, but he looked otherwise unharmed. He must not have fought as hard as Elise had. “What the hell is going on?”
    “The Union followed me to the hospital and found you.”
    “You let them follow you? They arrested me outside the maternity ward!”
    “I didn’t let —”
    Anthony coughed. “Elise…” He nodded toward the camera in the corner. “They said five minutes. We should make this fast.”
    “Make what fast?” McIntyre asked.
    “I get to interview you before the Union does,” she said. “If you want to try being honest, this would be a great time for it.”
    “I already told you everything I know!”
    “Then everything you know isn’t good enough. You’re about to get dragged across the country and prosecuted for the murder of a recruiter by a Union court. So if you have information that will prove you’re innocent before that happens, I would love to hear it.”
    McIntyre rubbed his wrists. “How am I supposed to prove I didn’t do something?”
    “Do you have an alibi?”
    “Not exactly. I was alone at home. Tish and Dana spent the week with her parents.”
    Elise and Anthony exchanged glances. She raised a questioning eyebrow, and her boyfriend mouthed: He’s hiding something.
    “You met with Michele, didn’t you?” Elise asked.
    McIntyre’s jaw clenched. He lowered his voice and angled himself so that the camera would see nothing but his back. “Okay. I did meet Michele Newcomb. She claimed she wanted to talk about the summit, but when she showed up, all she wanted to talk about was recruitment.”
    “So you thought you would kill her?”
    “She left my place alive. But she was pushy. Michele said the Union would train me, like being in charge of my city since I was sixteen fucking years old wasn’t good enough training.” He dropped his tone even lower. Elise had to lean in to hear him. “And she said they would give me an aspis.”
    “You have an aspis,” Elise said.
    He shook his head. “Look… Tish isn’t a witch. Not like James is. She knows what to do with her herbs, but when we tried to do that ritual…” He ran a finger along his underarm. “She’s as good as mundane.”
    She took a closer look at his skin. There was no hint of the telltale scar that resulted from the ritual binding a witch to a kopis. Hers had faded slightly over the years, but she still had a long silver line from wrist to elbow that matched one on James’s arm. “So they were going to separate you from your family.”
    “At first, for training,” McIntyre said. “Michele said my family could live with me when I was assigned a team, a new territory… and an aspis.”
    “That doesn’t sound too bad. You could use an actual aspis,” Anthony said. He had kneeled beside them so he could listen to their whispered conversation.
    McIntyre shot a glare at him, and the room filled with deadly, silent tension.
    “Anthony—shut up,” Elise said.
    “What? It’s not like Leticia can protect him like an aspis should.”
    McIntyre got to his feet. He wasn’t usually intimidating, but he was a big guy, and he was mad. Anthony scrambled to his feet. “I’ll cut you a break, man. You’re new at this. You don’t know shit. But a kopis and an aspis is a big deal. There’s this saying we have about it: ‘More permanent than marriage, more fatal than family, closer than the oldest friends.’ It’s not like you pick one up on a street corner like a cheap fuck. It’s more than that. Tish is… she’s everything .”
    “And that’s your problem,” Elise said. “Nobody should be everything. Not in this business.”
    McIntyre laughed. “That’s really rich, coming from you.”
    She swung, but he was ready for it. He shielded his face and took the hit on his forearm,